Over the past decade, an increase in the robbery of scrap-metal has gone up greatly.  It was during the depression when the real robberies began, but desperation has turned to greed and the robbers have returned.  From the tools they use, to how much they’re stealing, and even to how they do it.  Police are trying to stop leaves from stealing up to $60,000 dollars in contracting materials.  A recent robbery demonstrates how bold they’ve become.

The company, Potential Electric, lost $40,000 in materials at the hands of some expert thieves.  The president of the company upon reviewing the evidence showed to him by police, noted how easily they cut through his security.  He easily identified a diamond edge saw used to cut through his gates.  What he lost, however, was even more important.  Due to the robbery the company's assembly time will slow down costing them even more money.

The actual incident, taking place on June 9th, is actually one of three recent events in Orlando.  Crimes similar to this have started to become very common and are putting contractors on the alert.  Police believe thieves look for potential gigs during the day through simple observing, then based on easiest target make there move.  The theft revolves mostly around copper wiring increasing in price.  Now being bought for $2.50 a pound, thieves are on a rampage to get their hands on it.

Florida police have tried to begin cracking down to stop the robberies but they believe they’ll be a lot more to come.  In 2012 there were a total of 236 thefts and this year we’re already up to 89 reported thefts.  Things have gotten so bad as to thieves stealing the copper from streetlights along Interstate 4 and John Young Parkway.  Police are comparing the need for cooper to that of crack-cocaine.  Residential citizens are actually starting to put cages around their own air conditions, which contain roughly 30 to 50 pounds of copper in them.  This is due to the high amount of reported robberies in which these units just disappear.

The problem at hand was a lot less of a problem around ten years ago, this was due to the fact that copper was only worth around $0.70 a pound.  Thieves wouldn’t waste their time and now the craze is back.  The robberies are predicted to turn into an epidemic if the police can’t figure out a solution soon.